Fidler in the Hood: Around The World in 180 Days with ‘Irene’

G’DAY Uvongo mates. The weather is frightening and thunder and lightning seems to be having its way, but it’s a lovely day, especially on the Hibiscus Coast’.

Sharing a bottle of wine over lunch with a mate the other day, he remarked ‘It’s a madhouse in South Africa, politics-wise, but every day is a sunshine day – it really is paradise living here.’

ALSO READ : Fidler in the Hood: Keep right on to the end of the road

That about sums it up: We are driven to despair by the paucity of local government’s service delivery, but we bounce back, always looking on the bright side. On with the show.

Bumped into former South Coast Herald stalwart Judi Davis and her hubby Bill at last week’s parkrun.

The couple had just completed their 250th-plus parkrun – amazing, because your scribe had just ducked out of his 100th one, giving up after 28 attempts to run – the sands of St Mike’s and Uvongo beaches are too much like hard-going.

These days there’s too much huff and not enough puff.

Atlantic crossing

Apparently there are other bits of paradise elsewhere on earth beyond Uvongo.

Bill and Judi’s son Denzell and wife Carla (from Uvongo and Ramsgate respectively) and their two children Angelica (7) and Callum (4) have sailed off into the sunset, fulfilling a dream to sail round the world.

After several years at sea as a marine engineer, Denzell came ashore to buy a yacht for the family.

The 38ft Prout catamaran named ‘Irene’ was originally built and owned by Bruce Knowles of Umzumbe.

Last September, Denzell sailed the yacht from Richards Bay along the coast to Simon’s Town in the Cape.

With a full complement of crew coming aboard in Cape Town (Carla and the two children), the Davises set sail across the South Atlantic, calling at St Helena and Ascension Island, before spending time in Recife and Fortaleza, north-east Brazil.

No mean feat, you’ll agree, especially with two very young children.

Caribbean Clipper

From there they continued on to the Caribbean Islands, Martinique, the British and US Virgin Islands, Willemstad, Curacao, finally arriving at Colon, the Atlantic Ocean entrance to the Panama Canal. They passed through the canal to Cristobal (Panama City) and then into the Pacific Ocean – a great adventure.

Luckily they at least saw the canal.

On his very first trip to sea, your scribe missed out, passing through the canal ‘passed out’ and ending up in the ship’s hospital, worse for wear, after succumbing to the demon drink ‘Rum and Coca-Cola’ (as sung by the Andrews Sisters).

Currently the Davis crew is in Ecuador on the east coast of South America and will spend three weeks there before sailing to the amazing-to-see Galapagos Islands.

After that it will be ‘Tales of the South Pacific’ to the Marquesa and Mariana Islands, Tahiti, the Cook Islands, Fiji and then on to Australia.

Since leaving SA, ‘Irene’ has taken them 10 000 nautical miles without incident across the Indian, Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

The two children are coping very well, meeting lots of other yachting children, learning other languages and being home schooled on the yacht.

No ducking out on homework either, with the world being their classroom.

A great adventure for the Davis family and a rollicking good story for the Bonus.

Thanks, Bill and Judi. Great stuff. Brings back memories of the ‘Seven Years Before The Mast’ days.

Well, actually it was only four years, but unforgettable memories as a young man. See you, Rob.

HAVE YOUR SAY

Like the South Coast Herald’s Facebook page, follow us on Twitter and Instagram

To receive our FREE email newsletter, click HERE